Arturo Erbsman
1. Where were you born and where are you from ?
I was born in Brussels, Belgium. I’m French and Belgian
2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?
The surrealist Spanish painter Miro.
3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?
Yes.
4. What led you to the design creation ?
My passion to create new things from a flow of thought.
5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?
I like exploring the interface between manmade and the elements of nature.
6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?
I do not have a typical day. However, I tend to work very late into the night when I’m designing lighting objets.
7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?
Of all materials I have worked with, I’m most fascinated by water in all its forms.
8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?
Some of my creations depend on the weather for existence
9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?
Follow your dreams
10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?
Environmental art movement
11. What designers have influenced you ?
Andy Goldsworthy, Olafur Eliasson, Tokujin Yoshioka
12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?
Nendo
13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?
Jean Michel Othoniel
14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?
Poetic objects that pay homage to the four elements.
Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Freedom
2. What is your greatest fear?
Losing my art work
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Losing my art work
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Cowardice
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
Travelling to the North Pole
7. What is your current state of mind?
Meditative
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Patience
9. What is the quality you most like in a man ?
A man who keeps his word
10. What is the quality you most like in a woman ?
Same as above
11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Let’s try again
12. Which talent would you most like to have?
Let’s try again
13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My myopia
14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Polar Light at the Ice Hotel
15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
As a drop of ocean
16. Where would you most like to live?
Too many places come to mind
17. What is your most treasured possession?
A crystal I picked up in white desert in Egypt
18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Losing a genuis creative idea in a dream
19. What is your favorite occupation?
Creating utility objects for my house
20. What is your most marked characteristic?
My nose
21. What do you most value in your friends?
Trustworthy
22. Who are your favorite writers?
Arthur Rimbaud
23. Who is your hero of fiction?
Inspector Gadget
24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
25. Who are your heroes in real life?
My wife and my mother
26. What are your favorite names?
27. What is it that you most dislike?
Climate change denial
28. What is your greatest regret?
No regrets
29. How would you like to die?
30. What is your motto?
Keep on trying !
